


Ice and Fire

by taiyakisoba



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cute, Dungeons & Dragons References, F/F, Fantasy, Fluff and Angst, Lesbian, Monstergirl, Romance, Yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:34:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26232787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taiyakisoba/pseuds/taiyakisoba
Summary: The proud lady-knight Euphoné reluctantly joins forces with Vervain, a mischievous demoness, to escape a dangerous dungeon.
Relationships: Female Knight/Demoness
Comments: 12
Kudos: 55





	1. Roll for Initiative!

Note: _Ice and Fire_ was first published in Uruk Press' fantasy-erotica anthology _Sex & Sorcery: Volume 3_.

The last skeleton disintegrated as Euphoné drew her longsword from its body. Its skull toppled to the chamber floor and shattered, but the knight was already striding across the stone, her eyes fixed on the red-robed wizard rising from his throne. 

“Fool!” cried the wizard, spittle coating his wild black beard. “Fool knight! You think that you can defeat me, Ondskap, Dark Wizard of the–”

Euphoné broke into a run. The wizard, eyes goggling, grabbed the gem around his neck and spat out dark words which scraped at the knight's brain. Red light poured from the stone.

In two leaps she was up the stairs. Ondskap's eyes went wide as Euphoné's sword pierced his chest and with an anguished cry he fell backwards. Her blade slid free and with it came thick black ichor.

But she was too late to break the spell of summoning. The gemstone flared and Euphoné wheeled about as a pillar of flame erupted from the centre of the chamber. 

Euphoné sprinted back down the steps, leaving the now dead wizard slumped forward on his throne and bubbling out the last of his dark life-force. 

The fiery column fell away, the flames parting to reveal a tall black-skinned woman, totally naked. No, not a woman. Her small horns, furled black wings and pointed tail revealed her for what she was: a demon. 

Euphoné knew she must strike quickly. Demons were powerful foes! Sword raised, she threw herself at her new enemy.

The demoness, her eyes wide and her mouth an O of horror, threw up her hands. “No, wait! I surrender!”

The knight came to a skidding halt and checked the fall of her blade. Her blue eyes narrowed.

“Begone, devil,” she hissed. “Your dark master is dead!”

The demoness grinned, a flash of sharp snowy teeth. “I know. At last! And I have you to thank for it.” 

Euphoné frowned and did not lower her sword. Demons could not be trusted! 

“If you truly surrender, then leave this place,” she said, “Return forthwith to your foul domain.”

The demoness placed her hands on her hips and pouted. “There's no need to be rude, you know. But I will go home, just as soon as you do me this one little favour.”

Euphoné raised her sword. Ah, so here came the deceit that characterised her kind!

The demoness's eyes fell on the sword-point. A droplet of sweat trickled from her temple. 

“I'm not trying to trick you,” she said quickly. “I mean, I can't return to my 'foul domain', as you call it, until you free me from the wizard's magic.” She inclined her head towards the throne. 

The knight glanced momentarily in the same direction. Ondskap was dead, but around his neck the gem still glowed and spat with energy.

“That's right,” said the demoness, nodding. “The necklace. The summoning stone still binds me to this world. I can't leave until it is destroyed.” She smiled, then, a smile Euphoné suspected was meant to be ingratiating but which came across as alarming with its array of pointed canines. 

Euphoné, keeping one eye on the demoness, climbed the steps. She avoided the thick dark blood pooling around the wizard's feet and nudged the stone with the tip of her sword. Black energy still squirmed within it. 

“It won't hurt you,” said the demoness. “There's no protective spell. A sharp blow should do the job.”

Euphoné lifted the necklace from around the wizard's neck with the point of her sword. She descended the steps, holding it before her.

“Yes,” said the demoness. Her violet eyes were eager. “Now destroy it, milady, and release me!”

Euphoné let the necklace slide to the floor and raised her sword. Bright yellow light suddenly flashed across her face and she looked up. The demoness, eyes glowing, had thrust a burning hand in her direction and flames were pouring forth.

“Treachery!” cried the knight, leaping aside. The column of fire roared past her and there was an anguished scream as Ondskap's corpse, animated by some dark magic, was enveloped in flame.

Euphoné rolled, leaped back onto her feet and with a swing of her sword cleaved the wizard's gibbering head from his body. Slain again, the necromantic magic failed and head and body fell to the floor where they burned, raising a noisome greasy smoke. 

The demoness stepped back, hands raised. “No treachery! No treachery! See, I saved your life.”

Euphoné kicked the head away with a curl of her lip and hurried back to where the necklace lay on the ground. She lifted her sword.

“Yes,” murmured the demon. “Yes, milady. Do it. Strike!”

The knight's blade slid down, but she did not strike the gem. Instead, she again hooked the golden chain and lifted it up. 

“It will not harm me?” she asked.

The demoness shook her head. Her eyes were hungry on the stone. “It won't. Like I said, it's just a gemstone. Now quick, destroy it!”

The knight grabbed the chain and drew the necklace off.

“Yes,” said the demoness eagerly. “Now smash it. Toss it against the wall or crush it beneath your heel!”

But Euphoné, a grim smile on her lips, lifted the necklace one-handed and slipped it around her neck.

The demoness's face fell. “No,” she said. “No. Please. Destroy it. Free me, I beg you!”

Euphoné shook her head. “Not yet, hell-spawn. I shall free you, but only after you have done me a favour.”

The demon's eyes flicked over the knight's face. “What– what is it you want me to do?”

Euphoné swung her hand through the air. “This is the centre of Ondskap's lair. The way I came is blocked with boulders, some magical trap. I must still fight my way through to find another exit. I require your help. Aid my escape and you have it on my word that I will free you.”

The demoness opened her mouth, ready to plead her case, but when she saw the hardness in the knight's icy blue eyes, she slumped her shoulders. 

“Very well. But I have your word, yes?”

Euphoné's eyes flashed. “Yes, as a Knight of Aeovel. And our word is our bond.” She knelt down, tore a strip of rag from the bones of a fallen skeleton and fastidiously wiped the remaining ichor from her blade. The demoness watched her.

Soon Euphoné rose. “Let us leave this place.”

“Well,” said the demoness. “I sense a hidden door behind the throne. Perhaps that will lead us to the way out.”

“Open it,” said Euphoné, sword raised.

The demoness sighed. “As you wish.”

\------------

The demoness walked ahead of Euphoné at sword-point as they traversed the corridors of the dungeon. 

“There's really no need for this,” she said, offended. “Even if I wished to harm you, I can't with the gemstone around your neck.”

“Silence, hell-spawn!”

The demoness sighed. “I have a name, you know. It's Vervain.”

“I said silence!”

Vervain stopped and turned, her hands on her hips. “Look, are we really going to do this the whole way? Can't we make believe we're civilised for a while, at least?”

Euphoné frowned. “I am civilised.” 

Vervain smiled. “Oh, I don't doubt it. You Knights of Aeovel are famed not only for your skill with the sword but also in poetry and the way of chivalry, aren't you?”

The knight's eyes flashed with confusion, but her scowl dropped away at the demoness's compliment. She nodded.

“So it is said.”

The demoness pressed her advantage. “Then please, oh noble knight, lower your sword. I won't harm you. I want to get out of here as much as you do.”

Euphoné, after a moment's hesitation, sheathed her sword. She glanced about the dripping stone walls. “I would have thought such a gloomy place was like home to you.”

The demoness was taken aback. “My home? Like this cesspit?” she snorted. “Hardly.” She raised herself up, her tail stiff and tall. “My 'odious abode', as you called it earlier, is a place of beauty and light and opulence.”

Euphoné smiled grimly. “I did not call it an 'odious abode'. I called it a 'foul domain'.”

Vervain gasped. “Even worse! If you saw it, you'd beg my pardon.”

The knight laughed, then. “Beg your pardon? The pardon of a demon? Never!'

The demoness sighed. Well, at least she wasn't pointing that sword at her any more. 

“Let's keep going,” she said. “But before we do, perhaps you will grace me with your name, milady?”

Euphoné looked at her, unsure. But then she shrugged. “Euphoné,” she muttered.

“Euphoné,” repeated Vervain. “A pretty name. It means 'beautiful of voice', does it not?”

Euphoné's eyes went wide. “You understand the Sacred Language?”

The demoness snorted. “Of course I do. I'm an Agathos Daemon. I happen to be fluent in over one hundred languages, I'll have you know.”

“So you are not a succubus?”

Vervain gasped. “A succubus? Oh no, we are far higher up the hierarchy than that.” She placed her clawed hands on her hips. “What on earth made you think I was a succubus?”

Euphoné's eyes fell from Vervain's, slipped down over the length of the demoness's naked body. “Your form,” she muttered. The knight fought back embarrassment, but a flush still came to her face and she looked away at last. 

Vervain stared at the human's rapidly pinkening neck and cheek. Blushing? A Knight of Aeovel? Really? 

“My form?” repeated Vervain, amused. She let a clawed hand slip over a pert breast, slide down her flat stomach and over the curve of a thigh. “What's wrong with my form?”

The knight glanced back, but just as quickly looked away again. “It is intended to produce lust,” she said. The last word, 'lust', came out hoarsely. 

“Oh,” said Vervain. She smiled, delighted at the compliment. Then she was silent for a moment before she added, “So this body produces lust in you, does it?”

Euphoné wheeled around. “No!” she cried. “Why on Earth would your body do that to me? I am a Knight of Aeovel!”

“Well,” said Vervain, fighting back a smile at the knight's spirited consternation. “If this body doesn't do anything for you, then it doesn't matter if I walk around naked, does it?”

The knight frowned. “It is still unseemly.”

Vervain clucked her tongue and let her eyes skim over their surroundings. The walls weren't dripping any more, but the webs and the mould and the scuttling of unseen creatures left no doubt they were stuck in a dungeon. “Unseemly? I don't think any around here cares, milady.”

“I care,” said Euphoné. She slipped her pack from her shoulders, knelt down and untied a roll of grey material from it which she handed to Vervain. 

The demoness looked down at it as though she'd been handed a dead rat. “What's this?”

“A blanket,” said Euphoné. “Cover yourself with it.”

Vervain unrolled it. “What an ugly colour.” 

“Is it not intended to be fashionable,” said Euphoné.

“Well, in that is most certainly succeeds in that task,” said the demoness, pinching the material. “And how am I supposed to wear this exactly?”

“Around your shoulders,” said Euphoné. “Like a cloak.”

“Like a cloak,” repeated Vervain. “Very well.” She draped the material over her shoulders and tied it quickly around her neck. Her slender fingers were agile, Euphoné noted.

Vervain looked herself over. Her whole body was covered by the blanket. She glanced up to find the knight staring at her.

The demoness batted her eyelashes. “So how do I look?”

With surprising grace on the tip of her slender toes, she did a twirl. The blanket splayed out, revealing flashes of her nakedness: the swelling of a breast, the taut gloss of a shapely buttock, the startling copper V of her pubic hair. 

Euphoné swallowed. If anything, concealing the demoness's body had made things worse. But it would have to do. 

Vervain fell back onto her heels, the blanket ending its dance to cover her again. The knight's consternation amused her. The blanket did not seem so bad any more. 

“Come on,” growled Euphoné. “We have a long way to go.”

Vervain performed a satirical bow. “As you wish, milady.”

Euphoné had obviously forgotten her earlier rule of keeping Vervain ahead of her at all times, but Vervain knew it was merely due to distraction and not growing trust. Had her body really been so repulsive to her? But then the Knights of Aeovel were chaste, were they not? They did not allow any distraction from their dedication to chivalry. And yet her nudity, which should have counted for very little, had flustered her. 

Vervain pursed her lips. Humans and their strange ways!

She ran to catch up with her. 

“So,” began Vervain. “Let's have a conversation.”

The knight snorted. “Keep your peace. I am trying to concentrate.”

“Now don't be like that,” said Vervain. “We need to get to know each other if we're going to find a way out of this dungeon safely. “

Euphoné stopped. Her eyes were hard. “I have no desire to get to know anything about you, demon.”

Vervain sighed. “Again with that 'demon' word. You know it sounds like a slur from your lips, right?”

Euphoné's eyes narrowed. “Is this some trick?”

Vervain feigned shock. “I don't know what you've been told about my people, but we're not all involved in trickery.” She brought a finger to her lips. “Except imps, perhaps. They can be real tricksters. Why, I remember a time when an imp–”

Euphoné broke in. “If we have your 'conversation', will you stop talking so much?”

“I will,” said Vervain.

“Then tell me what it is you wish to know,” said Euphoné “But make it brief.”

Vervain raised an eyebrow. “Brief? Well, I'll try.”

The knight had already started walking again. Vervain caught up with her. She was sick of tagging behind her like some faithful dog.

“So your name,” said Vervain. “Is Euphoné.”

The knight turned on her, eyes flashing. “You already know it to be so. Are you going to ask such stupid questions?”

Vervain pouted. “You really are prickly,” she said. “I was merely asking you for your full name.”

Euphoné looked forwards again. “It is Euphoné du Evren.”

“There,” said Vervain, smiling. “That wasn't so bad, was it?” Euphoné walked faster and Vervain did the same to keep in step with her. “du Evren, is it? A famous family. So you are aristocratically born.”

Euphoné snorted. 

“Well, I too come from a noble family,” said Vervain. “My sire was an Agathos Daemon of Sabethel, while my mother was a Cacodaemon.”

Euphoné made no reply. Vervain continued. 

“That's why I have this black skin, you know. My mother's. All Cacodaemons have it. And yet the copper hair is my father's.” She ran a hand up through her long straight hair. At least it was free of that awful blanket! “My hair is rather famed, you know.”

Euphoné glanced back. Her expression was one of contempt, but still she said nothing.

Vervain acted as though she hadn't noticed. “But you too must be famed, Euphoné du Evren. Your hair is most strikingly beautiful as well.”

Euphoné stopped dead. This time the look on her face was murderous. “This is your idea of conversation? This litany of trivialities?”

Vervain shrugged. “Aren't all conversations so?”

“I do not know,” said Euphoné. “I have never cared much for conversation.”

“Knight since a child, huh?”

Euphoné frowned. “How do you know that?”

“You just seem the type,” said Vervain. Her eyes scanned Euphoné's hair – short, and in a bob. A very... well, militaristic style of hair, she supposed. 

Euphoné felt Vervain's eyes on her hair and her face grew hot. She turned away so she wouldn't see the blush spreading across it. Better to stare right ahead. She realised now she had made a mistake keeping that demoness here – what was her name? Vervain? She was a distraction rather than a help. Talking about her hair! Complimenting it, even. Euphoné frowned. Of course she enjoyed compliments, but every word that came from a demon's mouth was almost certainly a lie. She was just saying those things to ingratiate herself. 

And damn the demon, she was right. This was how they had worn their hair back in the Chapter House growing up. There were no precepts that demanded she kept it like this now that she was a knight, but she had simply never bothered to change it. Why was that? 

“I love your hair.”

The words popped unbidden into Euphoné's head, and with it the ghost of slender fingers drawn across her cheek. The scent of vanilla. 

Luella's hands. Luella's scent. A memory. 

That was why she had never changed her hair. To do so would have been to cut away a memory she cherished.

Vervain watched the back of the knight's head. She was deep in thought. Had her compliment offended her? It had been meant in all honesty. Euphoné's hair was beautiful. Was it gold or was it platinum? It seemed a mix of the two seams of metal. Blue eyes, too. Glacial, but gorgeous despite their hardness. Perhaps she should have complimented them as well. 

Vervain sighed, a little puff of smoke slipping from between her lips. No, she would have taken that badly as well. If only Euphoné had been a male knight. Then things would have been much easier. By now she would have had her thighs wrapped around his waist, engulfing his beautiful hardness, drinking deeply of his orgone.

Her stomach shifted. Oh no. Better not to think about feeding. She would be free soon, and then she could hunt for some delicious fare. Vervain scanned the dungeon. Far drier now. A smell of monsters, though. She did not want to have to drain the orgone of monsters. They tasted so awful! And this body was designed to feed off humans. 

She glanced back at Euphoné. Her head was slumped. Vervain tutted. She'd get in trouble if she didn't pay more–

Euphoné cried out, but the cry was stilled as quickly as it had been produced. Her feet left the floor and she rose into the air.

Vervain gasped and took a step back. Had she triggered some sort of trap?

Euphoné was twisted around by some unseen force and hung there, staring, her mouth open in a silent scream. Her sword hovered beside her, but then the air shifted and the sword was spat out. 

The clatter of the metal at Vervain's feet broke her shock. The sword was coated in a glistening jelly. No, no magic. A slime! Euphoné had not seen it, and with the slime being cold-blooded Vervain's infravision had been useless.

Vervain, cursing herself, dashed forward. Euphoné was squirming about, trying to fight herself free of the translucent jelly. Smoke began to rise from her armour, leaving the slime through pores in its skin. It was starting to eat her!

The knight was still close to the surface of the slime and Vervain plunged her hands up to the elbow. She strove to reach the knight's armpits, to pull her out, but could only reach her neck. The jewel in the necklace around it glowed.

Vervain's eyes were drawn to the stone. It would be easy to pull it off, take it for herself, smash it and be free of this knight. But then–

Euphoné's mouth gaped. Her surcoat was gone now, eaten away, and her cuirass and greaves had begun to darken from the creature's digestive enzymes.

Vervain pulled her arms out and stepped back.. Euphoné's eyes and mouth widened.

“Oh, don't look at me like that,” muttered the demon. She raised her hands and fire was born from her finger tips.

The slime, sensing its mortal enemy, quaked. Vervain did not hesitate. She thrust out her fingers and flame coursed over the monster. A torrent of ooze flowed forth from the boiling hole and the knight spilled out with it onto the stone floor.

The slime, its bubbling body now visible, retreated with an anguished sloshing. Vervain lowered her hands, letting the fire fall away.

“Yeah, that's it!” she shouted after the retreating creature. “You better run, slime!” 

But the knight at her feet, gasping and scrubbing at the smoking goo coating her body, demanded her full attention.

Vervain tried to help her to her feet, but Euphoné pushed her away. 

“I do not need your help,” she muttered. 

Vervain opened her mouth, ready to retort, but sighed instead. There was no point arguing with her.

Suddenly her long, pointy ears twitched. Ah! A familiar sound, and just what the knight needed right now.

“Come on,” she said. “I think I know where we can find water.” 

\-----------------------

The corridor led down. The walls grew green with lichen and glow-worms coated the walls, lighting the way with a ghostly blue gleam.

“Beautiful,” murmured Vervain.

Euphoné cursed under her breath. She flicked a finger-full of slime from her scarred cuirass onto the ground beside her. 

“Gross.”

Vervain rolled her eyes. This knight really was a goblet-half-empty kind of person! 

“You're lucky that slimes prefer to eat metal before flesh,” she said. “At least you're alive.” 

“Not for long,” said Euphoné grimly. “My armour is ruined.”

“Well,” said Vervain with a bow. “I, of course, will be here to defend milady.”

“Oh shut up,” said Euphoné.

They were soon greeted by the sound of running water. The corridor grew lighter, the yellow brightness of the surface, and they burst out into a great sandy cavern. Sunlight spilled down onto the sand in a great column from a hole far above their heads. A sinkhole! 

Vervain, the light sparkling about her, fell to her knees with a cry.

Euphoné ran to her. “What's the matter!?”

“The light!” gasped Vervain.

Euphoné placed herself between the demoness so that she was partly covered by her shadow. “You're allergic to light? Why did you not you tell me?”

Vervain's panting became a low, bubbling sound. Euphoné's heart turned to ice, but then she recognised the noise for what it was. Laughter.

The demoness looked up at her, her cat-irised eyes alive with delight. “Of course I'm not allergic to light. That's vampires, not demons!”

Euphoné stared at her. She ground her teeth, but then she shrugged and walked away.

“Oh come on,” Vervain called after her. “You've got to admit, that was pretty funny.'

The knight made no reply.

Vervain hopped up to her feet and followed her. “Look, I'm sorry for pranking you. But it was nice of you to be so concerned about me.”

Euphoné came to a halt at the water's glittering edge. “I still have need of you, remember.”

Vervain stopped a few feet away and crouched down. “Yeah,” she said. “I remember.”

Euphoné stuck her sword in the sand and began to strip off her acid-pitted cuirass. She'd loosened the second thong when she stopped and turned on Vervain, eyes flashing.

“Turn away,” she said.

Vervain blinked up at her from where she was crouched. “Excuse me?”

“I am undressing,” said Euphoné. “And I demand privacy.”

Vervain rolled her eyes. “I'm a demon, milady. You have nothing I do not have myself, except perhaps a soul, but since that's not visible on the outside, you and I are–”

“Just keep your eyes averted,” said Euphoné. 

“But I must guard you,” protested Vervain. “What if the water is infested with giant leeches?”

Euphoné tossed her cuirass aside, grabbed up her sword and stabbed it into the water over and over.

“See?” she said. “No monsters.” She pointed the sword at the crouching demon. “Now give me your word.”

“You have my word,” said Vervain, a hand on her chest. 

Mollified, Euphoné tossed the sword on the sand beside her and went back to undressing. 

Vervain chuckled to herself. Naive, even for a knight. She looked up through her dark lashes and watched as Euphoné undressed. Like she was going to be told what to do!

It was true. She had seen it all before, on herself and succubi and other female demons. But when it came to human women–

Wait, were they really the same?

Vervain was intimately familiar with the body of a human man. How many had she harvested of their orgone over her hundred years of life? Thousands? Tens of thousands, surely. There was no type of man she had not encountered. Of course, there were some she preferred – the orgone of a young virginal cleric new to the cloth was easily the most delicious – but all of them were familiar to her.

But the body of a human woman? Her curiosity was piqued. 

Euphoné tossed her arm-greaves next to the cuirass, then bent over and stripped the greaves from her legs. After that she quickly undid the laces of her doublet and pulled it up over her head. She was wearing a tunic underneath. 

Ah. Stripped of her armour, her slim body was revealed. Toned more than slim, really. Her tunic had ridden up as she pulled off her doublet and Vervain was given a good view of her long legs. Yes, well-toned, not over-muscled, built for speed and grace in fighting rather than just hacking and slashing. 

Vervain's heart skipped. Her legs were so white! Were all human girls so pale? But no. Humans came in many different colours. Euphoné's snowy skin was so different from her own, and yet it suited her platinum-blonde hair and blue eyes well. 

Euphoné half-turned and Vervain dropped her gaze quickly, her heart racing at almost being caught. After a few heartbeats, she dared to lift her eyes again.

Euphoné had stripped off her tunic and was washing it in the water. She was clad now only in her underwear. Ah, so it was not merely her legs which were pale! Her slim shoulders and arms and back were, too. 

Euphoné put her dripping tunic aside on a rock and began to pull down her underwear.

Vervain dropped her eyes. A strange guilt poured through her. She had promised the knight she would give her privacy and she would, for these few moments of taking off her underwear.

A splash. Vervain knew she could look up, now. The waterfall, the pool– but no Euphoné.

Vervain's racing heart skipped, this time in fear. Where had she gone?

But the fear dissolved in relief as the water surged up and Euphoné exploded out of it. Vervain's heart surged with it. 

The knight flicked back her hair, let the water sluice from her upper body. The water was up to her waist. Stripped of her breast binding, her bare back glistened, caught by the fingers of sunlight trailing down from the blue gap far above. 

In the sunlight the paleness was almost too bright to look at, and all of it topped by that beautiful halo of short white-gold hair.

Vervain began to breathe again. So this was what a human woman looked like? She willed Euphoné to keep facing away so that her eyes could delight in the slender power of her form, but she also wanted to see her breasts. How busty was she? In her armour it had been hard to tell.

Some god heard her plea. Euphoné turned part way around so that her body was in profile, but with her face still looking away as she gazed up at the shimmering veil of the waterfall. Ah. Her breasts were high and proud, but not overly large. Vervain would be able to cup one in each hand comfortably.

In each hand? Vervain felt herself flush. What was she thinking? But wasn't it just like when she harvested human men? She delighted in their bodies, too, her hands slipping over the smooth, near-hairless chest of an acolyte as she drew his spurting energy inside her.

Vervain fought back a laugh. So that was the problem! She was just hungry. It had been a while since she had fed. That explained these strange thoughts.

But still her eyes desired more. Alas, Euphoné had turned away, now, and her breasts were no longer visible. She was wading through the water, her muscles rippling with powerful grace.

Soon the water grew shallower again and Vervain, in delight, saw for the first time the high, pale roundness of Euphoné's buttocks. Ah, but it had been worth the wait. Curved and feminine, but not overly so, her lower half matching her svelte top. 

Vervain slid a hand over one of her own breasts. Yes, like most demonesses, her own form was over-generous, and for a moment she envied Euphoné the slim elegance of her body.

Euphoné let the water from the falls crash over her body. The days of sweat and dirt and ichor poured off her and she ducked her head under the water, gasping at the cold. It was then she remembered Vervain and glanced back at the shore. The demoness was still crouched there, scrawling something in the sand with her forked tail. Euphoné watched her, but only from the corner of her eye. She knew the demoness would not keep her word and would look at her sooner or later. She scrubbed the days of combat from her skin. She would smell much fresher, at least. 

Her hands slipped over her breasts. Ah, but the water was cold! Her nipples tingled, hard beneath her palms. A single hand easily covered each breast and Euphoné snorted. No doubt Vervain pitied her her small breasts. But they were perkier than the over-abundance of the demon's, which were designed with pleasure in mind. Euphoné was happy she did not have such large breasts. Some of her sisters at the Chapter House had been busty and it had always seemed a chore for them to strap their breasts down before they put on their armour. 

Euphoné's mind drifted to Luella. Her breasts, too, had been big. She'd often slipped her arms around Euphoné's chest, teasing her for being so flat. Euphoné had struggled and laughed, but secretly she'd enjoyed the girl's warm hands, the feel of her friend's ample breasts pressed up against her back. But it had all been innocent play on Luella's side. Euphoné had made a few stumbling attempts to take things further, but Luella had always taken them as a joke, and not long afterwards she had left the Chapter House to marry a young nobleman. She'd just been playing at being a knight, after all. 

Ah, but the water was cold. And Vervain still gave no sign of looking at her. Euphoné snorted. What was so interesting about that sand, anyway? Surely the demoness was interested in seeing what she looked like. Euphoné knew she was no uncomely. Many men and women had found her comely. 

Euphoné scowled. Vervain was able to annoy her even just by crouching there and doing what she had told her to. Typical of a demon!

Euphoné leaned down, took a scoopful of water, intending to splash it across her face. But the water before her exploded upwards and something emerald green with a dark maw darted at her face. 

Instinct and training kicked in. She grabbed the creature around the neck, feeling steel power beneath its moist scales as it twisted to free itself and bite her. A water serpent! It had been hiding under the veil of the waterfall, covered by the foaming water. It hissed and bit at her and she stumbled backwards. The snake was heavy, a coil of pure muscle. 

As they struggled, its tail whipped out and found purchase around Euphoné's leg. It curled around her calf and squeezed.

Euphoné bit back a cry and stumbled out through the sluicing water, water spilling into her eyes and burning them. Blinded, she fell back on her sense of touch, feeling the coursing of the snake's body, trying to predict which way it would twist next in its attempt to free itself from her grip and strike. 

Vervain heard splashing. Was Euphoné trying to get her to look at her? Why was she so determined to get her to break her word? To prove that all she'd said about demons was right? It was true, Vervain wanted to see that pale skin, that cute set of dimpled buttocks again. But that would mean a scolding from the knight and the demoness' pride would not allow it. She returned to her drawing.

The snake did not let up on its attacks, its white fangs flashing as Euphoné wrestled it back and forth. The wedge-shaped head darted again, but it was a feint this time. Euphoné over-compensated and the snake, feeling her grip slacken, slid from her grasp and lodged its fangs in her thigh. 

Euphoné screamed. 

Vervain looked up and saw the emerald green of the snake wrapped around the knight's leg. She leaped to her feet and ran pell-mell into the water, tearing off the blanket. With a deep sweep of her wings she took to the air. 

Euphoné felt hot venom pour into her. With a surge of desperate strength she grabbed the serpent's jaws and pried the creature's maw open, pulling its fangs out of her naked thigh. Black venom pooled from the twin holes with blood mixed in. The snake hissed in protest and Euphoné pulled its jaws further apart. There was a crack as its neck broke and it bubbled one final, dying hiss.

The head fell from her hands. Euphoné slid down into the water, but someone was there to catch her. Vervain.

The demoness dragged her from the water, the dead snake still wrapped around her, its lolling head floating behind them. When they reached the shore Vervain lay her back on the sand and with her demonic strength unravelled the snake's coils from her leg.

Euphoné gasped in pain. Her heart raced. The venom! The venom was spilling through her! 

“Shh,” said Vervain. “Try not to panic. The venom will spread.”

The demoness tossed the dead snake aside and her fingers quickly found the wound on Euphoné's inner thigh. 

“The venom must be drawn out,” she said. She fell on all fours, lowered her face to Euphoné's thigh and kissed it.

Euphoné gasped. Despite the pain, she felt those burning lips on her wound. Was it the venom that made that place burn so, or were the demon's lips always like that, a ring of tender fire? 

But it was not a kiss. Vervain was sucking on the wound, drawing the venom from her. It was just as Euphoné had been trained to do in cases of being envenomed, to draw and spit the venom out. But Vervain did no such thing, sucking the blood from her and swallowing it straight, venom and all.

Euphoné felt the poison losing its grip on her heart, but still the demon's lips burned on her skin. Gasping, the knight looked across at the demon, lying there on all fours with her wings furled. Her shapely bottom was in the air, her forked tail dancing back and forth, her breasts hanging free. Ah, they were so much bigger than hers! Euphoné felt an urge to reach across and cup their weight in her hands, to feel how soft the demon's skin was. 

Foolish thoughts! The venom must be addling her brain.

Vervain broke away, gasping, her mouth streaked with blood. 

Euphoné watched in a daze as the demoness lifted her face from between her thighs, her forked tongue licking at the crimson smear on her lips. Vervain's eyes were hooded, her chest heaving.

Euphoné felt a familiar heat between her legs. Oh god, really? At such a time? What was wrong with her!

Then Vervain's face darted back down to her thigh and Euphoné gasped. The demon's hot tongue lashed at the wound, licking it clean. Euphoné flooded more. She wished the demoness would not stop, would draw that licking tongue higher and dart it into the heat between her legs.

But she did not.

Vervain fell back. The knight's blood, spiced with the venom, was beyond delicious. And that scent she had smelled the second time she had lapped at the wound! She was not so familiar with that smell. She knew her own, knew the deep richness of that feminine scent she gave off when excited from drawing the essence of a human. So human females shared that, too. She had wanted to savour the novel delight longer, but shame had flickered in her heart.

Shame. Strange that that alien emotion should show itself right now! 

She sat back on her haunches and swallowed the last mouthful of Euphoné's blood. It was so hot, and made her feel hotter still. 

Euphoné was staring at her, exhausted by her struggle and by the drawing of her venom. Her blue eyes held some strange light. What was it? 

Ah. She looked thankful. But there was something else there, too.

But just as quickly as it had appeared, the flame flickered out and Euphoné's face hardened in a frown.

“You are naked again,” she muttered.

“Well,” said Vervain with a sigh. “Is that what counts as thanks from a Knight of Aeovel?” But she was not truly angry. In fact, the swiftness of the knight's change in attitude was like that of a child and had delighted her. 

And that scent. Had her lips really excited her so?

Euphoné shivered suddenly and Vervain giggled. 

The knight's eyes flashed at her. “What's so funny?”

Vervain covered her mouth with a taloned hand. “Why are you doing that?”

“Doing what?”

“Jiggling like that?”

“It's called shivering,” said Euphoné. “I– I am cold.”

Vervain clicked her fingers. “Oh yes. Humans feel the cold, don't they?” She glanced across at the knight's clothes. They were still wet, of course. She went and retrieved the blanket. “Here,” she said. “This is yours, after all.”

Euphoné frowned, but she took the offered blanket and wrapped it about herself. It was warm with the ghost of Vervain's heat.

Vervain went over to the knight's tunic. She lifted it in one hand and with the other she kindled a gentle flame in her palm.

“What are you doing?” Euphoné demanded.

“Drying your tunic, of course,” said Vervain. “You don't want to wander the dungeon draped only in that blanket, do you?”

Euphoné said nothing. She drew the blanket closer to her. It was cosy and there was a scent she recognised. Vervain's scent. She smelled of some warm spice Euphoné struggled to remember. The demoness was still busy drying, so she risked bringing the hem to her nose. Ah yes. Cinnamon. The one luxury she had enjoyed with the other knights at the Festival of Midwinter, mixed with milk. It was quite pleasant, actually.

And so Euphoné was more than a little disappointed when Vervain returned with her tunic, now dry. Euphoné took the blanket off. 

Vervain noticed she did not demand privacy, this time. Her skin was still wet and the demoness placed a hand over the knight's stomach.

Euphoné, startled, looked up at her. 

“I'm just drying you,” said Vervain, amused. She willed her hand to grow warm and she drew it quickly and methodically over Euphoné's body. The knight let her, but looked away while she did it.

As soon as she was finished, Euphoné slipped on her tunic and then laced up her doublet. With her hair still wet the knight seemed younger, less fierce, more fragile. But when she went and examined her armour, she gave it a sharp kick.

“Useless,” she muttered.

“You don't need your armour,” said Vervain. “You have me, remember?”

The knight glanced at her. She did not smile, but the earlier irritation in her eyes did not return. 

“We should get going,” she said. 

She retrieved her sword and her blanket, but did not give it to Vervain and merely rolled it up and tied it to her pack.

Vervain got up and brushed the sand from her buttocks with a quick one-two sweep of her tail. Had Euphoné forgotten about the blanket? Well, it did not matter. She was happy to be free of the scratchy thing. 

\----------------------

The stirge fell twitching to the ground. Euphoné drew her sword out of its body and Vervain doused it in fire.

“That's the last of them,” said the knight, drawing a hand over her glistening brow. 

Vervain bent over, panting. “Carrion crawlers, shambling mounds and now stirges. Can't there be at least one room without any monsters in it?”

“Come on,” said Euphoné, clapping the demoness on the shoulder. “We have to keep going. The exit must not be far away, now.”

Vervain grinned. The exit. Soon she'd be free! 

But as she watched the white-gold haired knight sprint ahead she felt a twinge of regret. Soon she'd be free. Was that not what she had wanted?

With her armour discarded, Euphoné had taken to running everywhere and Vervain had to fly to keep up with the knight's limitless energy. But now as she flapped her wings she felt a terrible languor fall over her. She flapped harder, rose a little into the air, then suddenly fell to her knees.

Euphoné stopped a short way down the corridor. What on earth was the demoness doing now? But when she saw Vervain slumped on the floor, she ran back, her face a mask of concern. 

“What's the matter? Are you wounded?”

The demoness shook her head. “No,” she muttered. “I'm just... drained. The fire… it takes a lot of my energy.”

Euphoné sighed. “Well, I suppose we might enjoy a short respite.” She took a knee and considered the fork in the corridor before them. 

Vervain kicked a path through the dead stirges and slumped against the stone wall, panting. “Not a single humanoid in this whole dungeon,” she muttered.

“Does that matter?” asked Euphoné. The demon, as usual, wasn't making any sense.

Vervain's chest continued to heave. “I… I need humanoids to feed,” she muttered.

Euphoné frowned. “Are you sure you're fine?”

The demoness nodded. “I… I'll be okay. I just need to rest, that's all.”

They'd been resting for a few minutes when Euphoné heard moaning from down the left corridor. She stood and drew her sword.

“Looks like our rest will have to wait,” she said.

The ghasts were on them in moments, three of them. Vervain barely had time to stumble to her feet. The fires in her palms sparked, then died.

“I'm out of energy!” she gasped.

“Don't tell me that!” Euphoné was surrounded by the undead, hacking down one which was quickly replaced by another, its mouth of broken-teeth drooling. She bashed it in the face with the hilt of sword as she kicked out at another trying to flank her. But she was outnumbered.

“Vervain!”

Vervain swung around. Her name? It was the first time the knight had used her name! But she had no time to muse over the fact. Euphoné was surrounded. Vervain delved deep, desperately searching for a hidden reserve of energy. She found it. Her hands burst into roaring flame and she sent a sheet across the massed undead. They squealed and burned very nicely.

“Careful,” gasped Euphoné, kicking apart a smouldering ghast. “That last spell almost fried me!”

Another ghast leaped out of the shadows from behind the knight. Vervain pulled her aside and blasted the creature with fire. An instant inferno, the ghast crashed to the floor of the dungeon and lay there, bubbling.

Euphoné was in her arms, staring at her. Vervain, with an awkward smile, let her arms drop.

“Sorry,” she said. 

Euphoné shook her head. “You saved me again,” she said.

“Well,” said Vervain, a little insulted by the disbelief in the knight's voice. “Uh, we had an agreement, right?” 

Euphoné nodded and a shy smile broke onto her lips. But then Vervain suddenly toppled forward and the knight just barely caught her.

“Vervain!”

“My name,” the demoness murmured. “You said my name again.”

Vervain's body was slack and Euphoné struggled to hold her up. She wasn't making any sense! “What's the matter? Are you wounded?”

“Hungry….” she whispered.

She was hungry? Euphoné looked around. Against the far wall the two ghasts she had killed lay in a jumble. “You feed on humanoids, right? Why don't you–”

Vervain shook her head feebly. “Can't,” she whispered. “Undead. No… no energy.”

Euphoné fought back panic. What were they going to do?

Moaning filled the corridor, echoing from the dark behind them. More ghasts!

Euphoné tried to steady the demoness on her feet. “We need to get out of here!” 

Vervain pushed at the knight's chest feebly. “Can't,” she said. “No… no energy. Leave me.”

Euphoné scowled at her. “I'm not going to just leave you here!” With a grunt she hoisted the demoness over her shoulder and broke into a jog.

The glittering eyes of more ghasts filled the corridor to the left. Dozens of them! 

Euphoné had no choice. She took the right corridor. A few feet down it and the floor grew slick and she lost her footing. With a cry she fell on her back and started to slide. She held onto Vervain, too weak to cry out herself, as the two of them skidded down the passage into pitch darkness.

To be continued


	2. Released

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After fighting their way through the dungeon, the exit is in sight! But can Euphoné and Vervain bear to be parted?

Euphoné, gasping, opened her eyes. There was light everywhere around them. The dungeon seemed far away, a distant memory. Was she… was she dead? Was this paradise?

She tried to move. Her body burned with pain. Ah. The slide. This was not paradise.

She felt beside her. Something soft, moist to the touch. Quickly she rolled over. 

Large eyes stared into hers. Beautiful eyes, despite their feline slits. Or maybe all the more beautiful because of them. But they were glassy, staring right through her. 

Ice gripped Euphoné's chest. “Vervain?” She shook her gently.

“Hungry….” whispered the demon. 

Relief flooded her. She was still alive! 

“Shhh,” said Euphoné. “Do not try and move. I will see where we are.”

She sat up. Beauty filled her eyes, but indeed this was not paradise. They were still in the dungeon. They'd slid down into a natural cavern. The walls were all of faceted crystal, like the inside of a geode, capturing a glow which was coming from somewhere deeper into the cave. The light was a spectrum of green and red and yellow and blue and as she crawled forward the canvass of her pale skin shifted as though she was a living rainbow. 

Water. There was water here, a deep pool, glittering. They'd landed on a strip of beach. But the light was coming from somewhere. Euphoné could feel a breeze on her face.

She returned to Vervain. “We are safe, Vervain. We must not be far from the outside. Just a short way to go. Why don't you try to–”

Vervain weakly lifted a hand. Euphoné took it.

“Can't...” she whispered again, but this time so soft that Euphoné could barely hear her voice. “Too… weak… Hungry.”

Euphoné looked about her in despair. “But there's no-one here!” 

“Please...” Vervain's hand dropped away slackly. “Energy.”

“How? There's no-one...” Her voice dropped away. She was there. But how… how did a demoness feed? 

She took out her knife. “Life-force, right? Blood? You drink blood?”

Vervain took hold of the knight's hand, poised with the blade over her arm. “No,” she whispered.

Her hand reached higher, to Euphoné's lips.

Ah. The knight understood then. Her breath!

She leaned down, her face close to Vervain's, feeling awkward. But how? How was she supposed to feed her her breath? 

Euphoné exhaled. Her breath blew across Vervain's mouth and the demoness gasped. She lifted her head, sucked the air, then slumped back down. Euphoné leaned closer, breathing on her lips in a steady stream. Vervain gasped like a fish, but could draw little of the breath in. 

The knight sighed. There was nothing else for it. She brought her lips against Vervain's and blew into her mouth. 

The demoness's lips pushed back against hers. They were surprisingly soft. She breathed out more deeply. It was not her breath she wanted, was it, but her life-force?

Euphoné did not stop to think how losing part of her life-force would affect her. The demoness had expended the last of her energy saving her life and as a knight of Aeovel she could do nothing short of paying her debt.

Vervain inhaled against her lips, sucking more in. She seemed to be growing stronger. The demoness reached for her. Euphoné tried to take her trembling hands in her own, but Vervain reached higher and cupped the knight's chin. 

Vervain's hands were smooth and warm against her skin and Euphoné's heart ached. Ah, what was this melting feeling inside her? Her life-force… was it melting away?

She felt a familiar liquid surge below her waist. Her face burned with shame. She was melting there as well! 

Pleasure flowed through her and she gasped. Vervain was not sucking at her lips now, but kissing her. Dazed, she kissed her back tentatively – it had been so long since she had kissed anyone. The demoness' lips grew firmer against hers. The tip of a forked tongue darted past her teeth, seeking her own. 

Euphoné pulled away, gasping. Vervain's eyes could focus now, the irises alight like tongues of yellow flame. She smiled, a strangely shy smile, her expression fragile but for the fire in her eyes.

She licked at the their shared moisture bedewing her lips. “Delicious,” she murmured. 

Euphoné blinked at her. “Delicious?”

“Your energy,” said Vervain. She eased herself into a sitting position. “And potent! Even such a small drop and I can feel it burning inside me, right here.”

The demoness pressed her hands against her chest, between her large breasts, and the knight, flushing, turned away. 

“I– I am pleased you feel better.”

Vervain took her hands and Euphoné turned back. The demoness' violet eyes glistened. Her chest was heaving and when the demoness pulled the knight's hands to her Euphoné felt how hot her skin was.

“Do you feel, that?” whispered Vervain. “My heart. You've set it beating again.”

Euphoné blinked. “My life-force did that?”

Vervain shook her head and laughed. “Oh, the energy I took from you was not your life-force, my darling. Orgone is what I feed on.” 

“Orgone?”

Vervain lifted the knight's hands to her lips and kissed her fingertips. “Sexual energy. And I'm still hungry.”

“No, no,” muttered Euphoné, shaking her head as Vervain took her shoulders and gently pushed her back onto the sand. “No, I–”

“Shh,” said Vervain. “You don't have to lie. I can smell the orgone flooding out of you.” Her eyes grew coquettish. “Am I– am I really so attractive to you?”

Euphoné made no reply, and when Vervain leaned closer she feebly tried again to push her away.

Vervain took the knight's hands and drew them down onto the curve of her breasts. Euphoné gasped.

“For such a strong knight you're not really putting up a fight,” murmured Vervain. She closed her eyes. “A woman's hands! Ah, even a knight's hands are soft.”

“But, but I–”

Vervain, her eyes still closed, brought her face close. “You'll have to show me what to do,” she whispered. “I've never lain with a woman before.”

Euphoné's heart leapt. “Never?”

“No,” she breathed.

Euphoné senses reeled at the soft heaviness of Vervain's breasts, the sweet scent her skin was giving off. Her mind and her body were melting away! But still she hesitated.

Why should she fight against this desire? Wasn't it what she wanted? Wasn't she just as hungry as Vervain was now? Didn't she want to taste the source of that gorgeous scent? 

Euphoné's pride vied with her shame, but the struggle did not last long. She slipped her arms around the demoness' slim torso and drew her down until their mouths came together. Vervain's eyes went wide, and when Euphoné playfully licked her tongue against the demoness's lips she gasped.

“Ah! Your orgone. The flavour is so different from a male's!”

“Shh,” Euphoné murmured against her mouth. “That is but a little taste. I will feed you all the energy you could desire.”

She rolled the demoness onto her back and swung herself astride her. Vervain was taller than her, it was true, but drained of her energy she was strangely lighter than before. The demoness's new-found submissiveness excited her and Euphoné leaned down and kissed her with a hungry mouth. 

Euphoné's tongue dipped deeply into the sweet heat and Vervain intercepted the girl's agile tongue with her own. 

Ah, so here was that brave and energetic knight she knew! But this was a kiss. A demoness seldom had reason to kiss. When feeding, sometimes a human might wake and seek out her lips, but she had always found it an amusing distraction from harvesting the sweet pure energy of male seed. But now, as the knight kissed her, Vervain felt Euphoné's orgone filling her, flooding her body along with their mingled saliva. She clutched at Euphoné, felt the roughness of her doublet against her naked breasts. Her hands slipped down the knight's back, clawing at the material as she burned with liquid fire. The material– she hated it! She wished to feel Euphoné's bare skin, that beautiful ice-pale skin she had seen before, pressed against her own.

Euphoné unlaced her doublet and slid it off her shoulders, then reached down and lifted the hem of her tunic up until it bunched around her middle. Vervain's hands fell upon the now-bare skin of the knight's waist, caressed it.

Ah, but there was still material there– the waistband of her underwear. Vervain slipped her hands over it, followed the smooth tone of the muscular buttocks underneath and squeezed.

It was Euphoné's turn to gasp. She pulled away, reached back and pulled the waistband down with Vervain's help. Then she returned to kissing the demoness, drawing her lips across the ridge of her slender jaw and down the soft valley of her neck.

“Ah!” Vervain had abandoned Euphoné's underwear around her knees, greedy to feel the newly-bared smoothness of her skin. Her fingers danced up her legs from the cusps behind her knees, along the back of her thighs and over the gorgeous curve of her buttocks. Her fingers slid around them and found a boiling wetness waiting between her legs. 

Euphoné cried out. Vervain's fingers slid into her and sent a jolt of pleasure blazing along her spine. Inflamed, the knight's kisses dipped lower, becoming bites as she fed on the smooth glossiness of the demoness' skin.

Vervain bit her lip and struggled to keep herself from moaning. Oh, so this was how another woman's kisses felt! Euphoné's lips were so soft, yet hungry, too, and knew where another woman wished to be touched. Her kisses followed the curve of one breast and then the other, teasing her, leaving her nipples untouched.

But when Euphoné's lips slid over a nipple at last and plunged it into a world of molten heat, Vervain could no longer hold back her cries. The desperate excitement in them set Euphoné alight and she wrestled the nipple in her mouth with her tongue and grazed it with gentle teeth.

“Oh gods, oh gods!” Vervain cried out, entwining her fingers in the knight's hair. 

Euphoné chuckled deep in her throat. She let the nipple pop wetly from her mouth and trailed her tongue along the whole centre of Vervain's body, leaving it to linger at last in the charming depression of her navel. She slipped the tip in, dipping it lightly, and Vervain cried out again. The knight felt the demon's thighs parting, that involuntary movement of girls who wished to be fully taken. 

A final lick and Euphoné turned from teasing. Her hands on Vervain's knees, she gently parted her legs further. Beneath the coppery V of her fiery pubic hair, the demoness was awash. Her lips, startlingly pink against her black skin, were open and glistening. Euphoné could not resist teasing her one last time – or was it herself she was teasing? – and hesitated, her face buried between the demoness' wide-open thighs with her lips just inches from her sex.

Vervain's pants grew shallower, more rapid. Euphoné moved closer, admiring her beauty. She truly was perfectly formed, and the spicy clean scent from the slick dew covering her was thickly narcotic.

Vervain lifted herself up on her elbows, face flushed, her eyes desperate.

Euphoné grinned. That was the look she had wanted to see. She would teach this wicked demoness the error of her earlier impudence!

Her blue eyes glued to the demoness's violet ones, Euphoné slid out her tongue and brushed the tip just above her swollen cleft. Vervain gave a little cry and fell back. 

It was no use. Euphoné had wanted to bully her further, but the scent was too delicious for her to hold back. She slid her tongue over Vervain's hard button, pressing it down and sending the demoness' impassioned voice echoing across the cavern.

The flavour! Euphoné had never tasted anything quite like it. Sweet and savoury, so like and yet unlike a human woman's intimate juices, she felt her blood turn to fire as the rich flavour filled her mouth and the fragrance her nostrils. The slick tunnel beneath promised more of that intoxicating dew and hungrily she burrowed her eager tongue deep into Vervain's sex. 

Drool spilling from the side of her mouth, Vervain stared up at the glittering crystals spread across the roof of the cavern. Oh gods, oh gods! She had never known feeding could feel this way! That swollen tension as she bounced herself on a human's stiff erection, that itchy need which rubbing her clit against his wiry pubic hair as he pierced her would only partly assuage…. This was so different! The passion boiling up in her was like magma, filling her to overflowing.

Ah, the energy! It was flooding her in pulses, springing along her spine from where Euphoné's exquisite tongue was dancing all over her. Vervain gripped Euphonés head, wishing she could open her legs wider, wanting more of that amazing tongue, more! 

The demoness' fingers were squeezing her scalp, but Euphoné paid them no heed. The pain sublimated to pleasure as she delved her fingers between her own legs, finding herself a mess of stickiness there. She plunged her fingers inside herself, left her thumb to slip over her slick button in time with her licking. Her fingers grew quickly soaked and a dreamy pleasure spread throughout her as Vervain's aphrodisiac juices numbed her mind. 

Vervain felt herself growing close, but she would not allow herself that final desperate eruption of her building tension. Behind her own soft cries and panting she could hear Euphoné's delighted murmurs, the wet sound of her fingers, and she desired to return the pleasure she was being given.

With a supreme act of will, Vervain pulled herself up onto her elbows. Euphoné, in surprise, lifted her face from between the demoness' splayed-open legs. Her eyes were hooded, her lips swollen and sticky. 

Grinning, Vervain pushed the knight onto her back. Euphoné's fingers, wet with her juices, slid out of her and Vervain hungrily replaced them with her long forked tongue. 

She had often sampled the delicious seed of a human man, delighted in the thick musk and saltiness, but the strong feminine fragrance and wild spiciness of Euphoné's sex was new and exquisitely exciting. Her lips and chin quickly grew wet with her fragrant juices, but Euphoné only permitted her the briefest of tastes before she curled herself around and took hold of Vervain's waist.

The demoness knew what she wanted. A few awkward moments later, she was straddling Euphoné's face. The knight pulled her down and Vervain quickly felt lips of liquid fire once again glide over her, followed first by one and then another slick finger slipping into her. 

Vervain bit back a cry, her whole lower half shivering, and smothered her face between the knight's thighs. 

Euphoné could not longer contain herself. As the demoness' amateurish but eager tongue delved within her she felt the crests of the waves of pleasure washing over her growing closer and closer together. She buried her mouth against Vervain, desiring to bring her to her climax at the same time. 

The demoness arched her neck, crying out, her tail whipping the air. There was no going back. She ground her hips forward and Euphoné took her shivering button between her lips. 

With a scream Vervain came. Overflowing orgone poured through her, wracking her body in pleasure, from the pinions of her wings to the tip of her tail. The demoness's entire body shuddered, and Euphoné's mouth was suddenly inundated by a rich flood of her juices. She swallowed, salty-sweetness flooding her senses, and when the base of Vervain's tongue scoured desperately across her clit, she came as well. 

Shuddering, her mind went white and every thought dissolved, everything except for the incredible softness of the demoness's sex glued to her lips, the thick richness filling her mouth, the wet sand against her neck and her bare buttocks, Vervain's mouth and tongue basting her in a paradise of wet fire.

Vervain held on as Euphoné climaxed, the human's shuddering thighs squeezing her head, the hard button of her sex spasming against her lips. Orgone spilled from her in waves and soon Vervain's every nerve was saturated to repletion. 

And then, with a final shudder, it was over. Vervain collapsed, shivering, and rolled off the knight, who lay there, hands and feet curling up like a baby as the final waves of ecstasy swirled through her. 

Vervain slid her arms under Euphoné's armpits, pulled her closer, kissed her exhausted and bruised lips as the two of them lay there on the wet sand, breathing out the last of their shared pleasure.

“Is… is love between females always like this?” whispered Vervain at last.

Euphoné was silent for a moment and the demoness thought she had not heard her, but then she opened her eyes. Tears filled them, mirroring the blue of their source, reflecting the rainbow of the light still playing across them.

“No,” she said. “No, it is not.” And she squeezed the demoness closer to her, as though she never wanted to let her go.

\---------------------

“I suppose we should get on our way,” said Vervain at last. She gave an immense stretch, exhilarating in the pure orgone still washing through her body and glanced across at the knight. 

Euphoné had said little since their love-making and the demoness worried that she regretted what had happened.

Euphoné fingers fell on the gemstone nestling on her chest. 

“What's the matter?” asked Vervain.

“I shall release you,” said the knight. She drew the necklace from around her neck.

Vervain took her hand. “No. I won't allow it.”

Euphoné frowned. “After all we have shared I cannot keep you enslaved any longer!”

“Well, I appreciate that,” said the demoness, grinning. “But I still have to get you out of this dungeon, right?”

“The exit is not far from here,” said Euphoné. “You have fulfilled your part of our agreement.”

Vervain took hold of Euphoné's chin and leaned down and kissed her.

Euphoné sighed. “What was that for?” 

“You take everything so seriously,” said Vervain. “It's adorable. But this time you have to let it go.” She sat down on the sand beside her. “If you destroy the gem now, I'll be banished. That means I'll go straight back to hell. And… well, I'm an Agathos Daemon. We have responsibilities. I… I won't be able to see you again.”

Euphoné's chest turned to ice. “Never again?”

Vervain shrugged. “Hey, I have no problems with mortals. It's your god who seems to have a problem with demons. Well, not just that. The infernal authorities won't permit me to do whatever I want, no matter how much I desire it.”

“You wish to stay with me?” Euphoné's lips trembled.

Vervain nodded. “I do. Well, that is, if you have space for a demon in your party.”

The ice lifted from Euphoné's heart. She got to her feet. “Very well,” she said. “Then why are we lingering here? Let us be off!”

Vervain, hiding a smile behind a taloned hand, let the knight lead her across the sand. 

–-----------------------------

The door glittered before them, a mass of glowing sigils.

“Looks magical,” said Vervain.

Euphoné clucked her tongue. “You are jesting, right?”

Vervain grinned. “Guilty.” She ran a hand over the surface. “This thing needs a key. We can't just break through it.”

Euphoné slumped against the wall of the corridor. “So all of this has been for naught?” She ran a hand across her face and then shifted her sword-belt. “Very well. We will find another exit, then.”

“Not so fast,” said Vervain. She drew her hand through the air and a key appeared in it, as though drawn from the air itself.

Euphoné gasped. “Magic!”

“Well yes,” said Vervain. “Demoness' don't have pockets so it's very necessary.” 

“But where did you get it?”

Vervain grinned. “I found it on Ondskap's body and pocketed it while you weren't looking.” Then, at the knight's scowl, she added, “Well, back then I didn't know if I could trust you to keep your side of the bargain either. Humans do have a bad reputation, you know.”

Euphoné was about to say more, but the mischievous expression on Vervain's face melted her annoyance. “Hand me the key.”

Vervain shook her head. “Like I said, the door's magical. Let me.” She turned and put the key in the slot. 

A great grinding echoed through the room. Dust shifted above them. Vervain stepped back as the key was drawn into the door and the shuddering grew stronger.

“What's happening?” shouted Euphoné over the noise.

Vervain frowned. “Ondskap's last trick, I fear.” She drew next to the knight. “Stay close.”

There was an ear-splitting crack and the ceiling of the outer corridor collapsed with a thunderous crash, spilling dust into the room. Vervain grabbed Euphoné and dragged her to the door. 

She placed her hands on the door and closed her eyes. 

“Vervain?”

The ceiling above them shuddered. 

Vervain grimaced. Light spilled from her hands. The door shifted, then opened a crack, just enough for someone to squeeze through.

Vervain turned to the knight. “Alright,” she said. “You fir–”

Another crack cut her off. A great chunk of the ceiling above them shifted and then, in a flood of dust, collapsed. Euphoné was thrown from her feet and cried out in terror.

Choking dust filled the room. Blinded, Euphoné struggled to her feet, her lungs burning, her eyes streaming.

“Vervain! Vervain!”

Her hands found a familiar softness and she rubbed her sleeves across her eyes. Vervain was there, her black skin yellow with dust, her face a rictus of pain. 

“Vervain?”

“Go!” the demoness gasped. 

Euphoné looked up through the veil of settling dust and her own tears. Vervain, her eyes blazing with violet fire, the muscles on her arms and neck coiled, was holding up the great stone ceiling. 

“Go!” she gasped. “I can't.. hold this up… for long!”

“No!” cried Euphoné.

Vervain glared at her. “Why are you... so stubborn? We don't…. both have to... die!”

With a gasp Euphoné suddenly remembered. The gem! She tore it from around her neck and held it up.

Vervain scowled. “What are you doing?”

Tears filled Euphoné's eyes. “Like you said. We don't both have to die. Goodbye, my dearest Vervain.”

And with that she smashed she necklace down onto the floor.

The gemstone chipped, but did not shatter. Euphoné looked up. Vervain was still there. She shifted her feet and another cloud of dust came spilling down over them.

In desperation, Euphoné smashed the gem down again and again. But it refused to break. She began to weep.

But then something pushed her back onto her feet. Vervain's wing!

The demoness smiled.

“Goodbye, Euphoné. Forgive me.”

A spear of fire flashed past Euphoné's ear. The door at her back splintered and Vervain, with a sweep of her wing, sent the knight sprawling backwards through the doorway. Sunlight spilled over her. She scrambled onto her feet in time to see Vervain, still holding the ceiling up, grin at her despite the agony on her face. Then the slab she was holding up shifted and with a shuddering crash it collapsed and she vanished in an avalanche of dust and stone. 

Euphoné raced to the doorway. Rock choked it now, fine dust billowing from the tiny cracks. Tears streaming from her eyes, she bunched her hands into fists and smashed them down again and again on the stone.

“Vervain!” she cried. “You fool! You stupid demon! Damn you! Damn you!”

She fell to her knees. She was still holding the necklace. It was chipped. She cradled it, weeping, as the light hidden in its depths flickered and then died. 

\--------------------------

Euphoné turned the necklace over in her hands. She looked up at the ceiling of her room. She had recovered from her injuries, the healers had said, but the healing of her heart would take time. 

She brought the gem to her lips. 

“Goodnight, Vervain,” she murmured. She placed the necklace under her pillow and blew out the candle. 

Sleep never came quickly to her any more. She would lay there, in the dark, her heart heavy, so heavy she couldn't move. 

Wait. No, there was something pressing down on her. A nightmare?

She struggled to move her arms. Her hand brushed something. She felt the familiar shape of the gemstone, its tiny chip. Vervain. Her memory gave her the strength to fight these demons of her own mind.

She drew it out and red light flooded the room. Euphoné suddenly found herself staring into violet eyes, glittering like amethysts under the light spilling out of the gemstone. The yellow slits narrowed and the mouth of sharp white teeth below them slid open in a wide grin.

“Vervain!” she gasped.

“Good morning,” she said. “Wow. You sleep really heavy, you know that?”

Euphoné blinked at the familiar beautiful face hovering over her. “Is this a dream?” she whispered.

Vervain shook her head and chuckled. “No, a nightmare.” She sighed. “Literally. I got demoted.”

Euphoné reached up, felt the familiar smooth warmth of the demoness' body. “You're… you're real!”

Vervain snorted. “Of course I am. The chip you made was just enough to send me back, although I was pretty beat up. I lost a few levels – not powerful enough to stay an Agathos Daemon, so they knocked me down to Nightmare.” She waved her hands in Euphoné's face. “Boo!” She sighed. “It's taking a bit to get used to.”

Euphoné burst into tears and drew the demoness to her. Her lips were hot, the tongue behind them wet and hotter still, too real to be a dream or a nightmare.

Vervain pulled away, gasping. “Oh, I missed that.” Her eyes drifted to the gemstone. “I'm glad you kept that thing. It means you can enslave me again.”

Euphoné, tears in her eyes, shook her head. “Why on earth would I want to do that?”

Vervain laughed. “You've got no choice!” She placed Euphoné's hand, still clutching the gemstone, between her breasts. “You see, I'm already bonded to you milady, heart and soul.”

The End


End file.
